Mijo
"Mijo" is the second episode of the first season of Better Call Saul and the second episode of the series altogether. As his troubles escalate to a boiling point, Jimmy finds himself in dire straits. An act of carelessness puts Chuck at risk. Teaser While Tuco Salamanca is preparing salsa in his kitchen, his grandmother returns home followed by the two brothers who are scamming her. The brothers, irate, begin to adamantly state the seriousness of the injury caused by the grandmother's "hit and run." They begin to argue loudly and insult Tuco's grandmother, which agitates him. After sending her upstairs, Tuco beats them down and ties them up, spilling some "salsa" on his carpet as a result. Summary Soon after, somebody knocks on the front door. Dedicated to cleaning a bloody carpet stain left on the floor by Tuco's attack on the twins, Tuco is greeted by Jimmy McGill. Tuco puts a gun to Jimmy's face and drags him inside. Under interrogation, Jimmy reveals himself to an attorney representing his two clients, who called him after being hit by a car and the driver just leaving the scene. He insists that he did not target Tuco's grandmother. Jimmy notices a bloodstain on the carpet, which would likely mean the twins are either hurt or dead. Using this as an advantage, he guesses that Tuco has only hurt the twins because Tuco is a "reasonable" and "just" man. Jimmy attempts to barter with Tuco to save himself and the two brothers. Tuco agrees with Jimmy, and brings Jimmy to the garage where the twins are held to unbind them. Just as Tuco is about free them, one of the brothers immediately outs Jimmy's role in the scam. Tuco kidnaps Jimmy and takes him to the desert. Jimmy, tied up and tape-gagged, is grabbed by Tuco, who removes the tape from his mouth and begins question him further. Jimmy finally cops to the entire ordeal — how he put the twins up to the scam as a way to get back at Craig Kettleman and Betsy Kettleman, who may have stolen over $1.5 million dollars while embezzling funds at work. When Tuco threatens to sever Jimmy's fingers with wire cutters, Jimmy desperately tries to claim that he is an FBI agent. This time Tuco is on board because he thinks if the FBI is after him, he must really be the criminal mastermind worthy of a Federal investigation. Tuco's second-hang man Nacho quickly sees through this façade, and threatens Jimmy to tell the truth or else the death sentence is back in board. Jimmy admits that he is a lawyer who intended to scam Mr. and Mrs. Kettleman, and how he was just trying to find a way to climb up from the pit that has become his life. Tuco unties Jimmy and frees him because of the fact that he told the truth and the only reason the twins were there in the first place was because of him. But a message still has to be sent. Tuco moves to kill the brothers in revenge for insulting his grandmother. Jimmy manages to convince Tuco to spare their lives, and talks him into merely breaking one leg on each of the brothers to make an example of them. Tuco shakes hands with Jimmy and gets his two henchmen to injure two brothers. Jimmy winces as Tuco begins breaking one leg of the two brothers. Suddenly, after leaving the desert, Jimmy drives the brothers to the hospital and drops them off, talking them from a death sentence to a probation for six months. After dropping off the brothers in the hospital, Later that night, Jimmy goes on a date with a woman in a bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol. Jimmy, traumatized from witnessing Tuco breaking one leg of the brothers, is distracted by staff members breaking breadsticks, which is a familiar sound with what he just witnessed in the desert. Jimmy excuses himself and vomits in the bathroom. When he arrives at Chuck's house, Jimmy doesn't ground himself and takes his cell phone inside, which makes Chuck panic and throws Jimmy's cell phone into the yard. When Jimmy wakes up, he discovers that his cell phone is missing, and his keys. Chuck confronts Jimmy after seeing the brothers' hospital bills. The hospital bill for the twin brothers and their broken legs had exhausted all of Jimmy's funds. Jimmy reassures Chuck that he isn't going back to being "Slippin' Jimmy" - in other words, he is not scamming people on this occasion. The only choice is to go back to the public defender’s office and make little money per case again. As a public defender, Jimmy defends client after client while taking home $700 each time he does it. This degrades Jimmy, losing case after case when the prosecutor isn't willing to budge, but eventually Jimmy wins one and it seems to send his confidence soaring. After a day in court, Jimmy returns to his office and sees that he still has no messages. Jimmy is ready to fall asleep on his couch bed and just forget this day ever happened. However, one of the beauty salon employees tells him that a client has arrived. The client turns out to be Nacho. Nacho comes up with an idea — Craig Kettleman stole $1.5 million from a treasury and now Nacho wants to rob him blind. Jimmy just can’t get on board with the idea of stealing from somebody even if it’s somebody who is already guilty of theft. Nacho prefers to steal from people who already stole something because then they lose the option of making a call to the police for help. Jimmy looks intrigued, but he can’t pull the trigger. James insists that he is a lawyer, not a criminal. Nacho disregards this, and writes his number on one of James' matchbooks. He reminds James that if he tells anyone about their conversation, he will be killed. He exits the nail salon as the episode ends. Credits Main Cast * Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman * Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut * Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler * Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin (credit only) * Michael Mando as Nacho Varga * Michael McKean as Chuck McGill Supporting Cast * Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca * Miriam Colon as Abuelita * Eileen Fogarty as Mrs. Nguyen * Jaime Luner as Nancy * Daniel Spenser Levine as Cal Lindholm * Steven Levine as Lars Lindholm * Jesus Payan as Gonzo * Cesar Garcia as No-Doze * James E. Dowling as Francis * Peter Diseth as DDA Oakley * Nadine Marissa as Contract Counsel Administrator * Ed Duran as Prosecutor * Robert Fortner as Snake Face * David Loving as Angry Father * Bruce Holmes as Huge Male Deputy * Jeff Poole as Breadstick Guy * Victoria Pham-Gilchrist as Salon Employee #1 * Kim-Lan T. Phan as Salon Employee #2 Trivia * This is the second part of the two-episode premiere, which the first episode aired on February 8, 2015 and this episode on February 9, 2015. * This episode is in reference to Tuco Salamanca, in which his grandmother calls him "mijo" which means "my son." * In the opening teaser, Tuco is seen cooking dinner. This in reference to how Tuco cooked burritoes for his uncle Hector "Tio" Salamanca and Walt and Jesse . * When No-Doze spoke out of turn, Tuco gets angry at him and tells him to "stop helping." This is in reference to when No-Doze spoke out of turn * When Jimmy uses the phrase "it's showtime", the movie he referenced this quote to is called All That Jazz. Featured Music * "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Esquivel * "Concerto for Strings in G 'Alla Rustica' 1. Presto" by Vivaldi (version created for Better Call Saul) Category:Better Call Saul episodes Category:Season 1 episodes (Better Call Saul)